Glorious news! The Walls are Closing In has begun developmental edits.

I received a thorough twelve-page document with insights, as well as several notes within the body of my manuscript, from the Head of Story Development at Inkshares, Matt Harry.

I was so pleased to read Matt’s feedback and suggestions, as he certainly seems to understand what I am striving to accomplish with this novel. I know that he and the rest of the team at Inkshares will guide me in strengthening the story, ensuring that all of you receive the best version possible.

Matt has worked on Tal Klein’s Punch Escrow, which recently signed a deal with Lion’s Gate, and JF Dubeau’s recently released A God in the Shed, optioned by Skydance. Matt’s own book, Sorcery for Beginners, will be out in October.

Check out a recent video with Matt Harry, discussing the development of A God in the Shed.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/224256631

Over the next several weeks I will be hard at work incorporating Matt’s suggestions, and then I will send the revised manuscript to him for round two. It also sounds like Inkshares has started kicking around some ideas for the cover. I will keep you posted on all fronts.

Until next time,

Jacqui

Hey early followers of Black Cloud. This book has been a long time coming and I wanted to say thank you for your early interest. In the wee hours of this morning I have quietly launched the funding campaign for Black Cloud. I’m sure you’ll all get an email about it.

I wanted to "soft launch" this campaign because I’m doing something that I think might be a first on Inkshares. I’m giving away a free audiobook of my first novel to everyone who pre-orders Black Cloud. I’m really excited about it. I think it’s a really great value and a great way to entice folks to order the new book. It feels really good to me to do it this way because you as a reader are actually getting something immediately for your money. PLUS you’re investing in a future book. PLUS you get the audiobook whether I make my funding goal or not. It’s really win/win for the reader!

I hope all of you will go check out the updated project page. There is a promo video up now that features an audiobook style presentation of the first chapter. I think it’s a good listen. I punched the "audio" portion up a bit with some music and sound effects. You’ll hear what I mean.

I’m assuming most of you are fellow authors. I hope this experiment goes well. I welcome comments, input, questions, etc. If you guys are able, please check it out and pre-order a copy if you want. In about five days I’ll start the real push for support. I just wanted some time to make sure everything was working smoothly before I started begging people to buy books.

I really appreciate your time and I hope you all have a great day!

- Landon

Yes, finally there’s news from the realm! And it’s short and sweet:

1. KOD in Developmental Editing. 
2. New Books in the Making...

1.) Developmental Edits have begun on Kingdom of Dreams! I’m hoping my editor can help me take this project to the next level. It needs a ceiling and a finish, my great hope is that we will achieve both. We are looking at the end of September or very early October as our end date, meaning: I will have a polished complete manuscript. When will it be in your hands as a physical novel? That depends, but the honest answer is sometime in 2018--my gut says closer to the end of the year. The publishing world is a slow monkey. That said, I should be able to set some semblance of a timeline when the book will hit actual publication. 

2.) I’ve started writing 4 new books. I know, I know. Let’s just say there’s a lot going on, and my mood swings need 4 new books to deal with my ever challenged attention span, sliver of available time, and my need to get book #2 and other subsequent novels out there rapido. I try to write 1,000 words a day--by the way I’ve fallen in love with the writing tool for the Mac, Ulysses. I choose which novel I work on based on mood, but one has worked it’s way into my full attention zone, so it will be my focus until I have the horrible, terrible, very bad first draft completed. I will not stop, no matter what. Scout’s honor. ;-)

I hope everyone is having a safe, fantastic summer. I’ll keep you posted!

Best Wishes,

Kevin

Wow... what a month it’s been.

Since the launch of A God in the Shed, it’s been a bit of a wild ride. Did a couple of local signing events, went to a convention in Utah... started writing the sequel.

While I’d love to bore you with the nitty gritty details however, this isn’t my diary. There’s new I need to share with you. News you want to know about.

Let’s start with this:

Gorgeous isn’t it? Joseph Gates of Gates of Imagination is making six of these for me. Each will have a hand written, unique secret about the story inside. You want one? Well, good news.

When I reach 100 reviews on Amazon, I’ll be raffling off one of these beautiful leather-bound copies of the book. I’ll randomly pick one of the first 100 reviewers as the winner. If I can’t get in touch with them after 48hrs, I’ll pick another. Until I have an address where to mail this beauty. So if you read the book and have a few moments, might be worth writing a short review. It doesn’t even matter if you rate it 1 star. You’re still eligible. And if you have a few extra seconds, copy and paste that review to Goodreads.

What else? Oh yeah!

You want an audiobook of A God in the Shed? If Amazon isn’t lying to me, you’ll be able to get one on July 18th. So if you’re less of an eye-person and more of an ear-person, this might be up your alley. I know you can already pre-order, so there you go.

Finally, why not take a moment to check out my other project currently funding on Inkshares? The sequel to my debut novel, The Life Engineered, is taking pre-orders. You don’t even need to have read The Life Engineered to enjoy it (though it adds that extra layer, and The Life Engineered is only 99 cents on Inkshares right now). Check it out!

As always and forever, thank you friends. You absolutely rule.

JF

Happy Midsummer everyone!

It’s the middle of July and warm weather has finally come to Maine.  Birds are chirping, the black flies are (mostly) dead, and most fun of all is seeing the pictures showing up in my Facebook feed of people showing off their copies of It’s All Fun and Games.  It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since it was released, but time has the tendency to keep moving forward, doesn’t it?

I keep running into people who want to know when the sequel will be coming out, so I wanted to give you an update on how More Fun and Games is progressing.  My summer teaching has been taking a bit more time than I’d hoped, which means editing has slowed down a bit.  I’m still chipping away at it, however - I’m maybe a third of the way through so far.  I’ve added Chapters 1 and 2 to the preview read on the project page, so you can read about the start of this new adventure.

Now my part is only half of the work.  YOUR part is the other half.  Inkshares only publishes books that a) cover much of the up-front cost; and b) show an established interest.  The 2400 or so copies of It’s All Fun and Games that have already been sold shows the interest.  Now we just need to cover those editing and design costs.  Please, if you’ve got the interest and means to do so, head on over and preorder your copy now.  

I also have one additional (less costly) favor to ask of you.  DragonCon, one of the largest fan conventions in the country, gives out the Dragon Awards annually.  I would deeply appreciate it if you could swing on by the nomination page and nominate It’s All Fun and Games in the "Best Young Adult/Middle Grade Novel" category.  Sure, it’s a long shot, but so was publishing in the first place, so why not give it a try?

As always, you can find me on twitter @llabak and on Facebook 

Thank you all for your continued support, and enjoy the rest of the summer!

Best
Dave

Greetings Jackolytes,

I’m currently in Saskatoon, Canada, the spiritual home of Jack and Sync City. Thursday morning at 7:50 am (CST), I’m going to be on the CBC Saskatoon morning radio show to talk about the book.

If you’re in Saskatoon, you can find it at 94.1 FM. If you are not in Saskatoon, then the following link will get you there: CBC Saskatoon Morning. You can find the live stream in the top right hand corner.

As I mentioned, the time is 7:50 am (CST) - you’ll have to work your local time out yourself!!

Enjoy the day.

Cheers,

Peter

Okay!

So, around 92% of you want the slightly delayed autographed book, and that is what you shall get. On July 24th I will enter Inkshares’ office with a bunch of special pens and not leave until every pre-ordered signed book is numbered and autographed. For the few of you who wanted your books early but unautographed, I’ve discussed the matter with Inkshares and they asked that you simply pop them an email at: hello@inkshares.com and let them know that you pre-ordered a signed copy of The Punch Escrow, but you’d rather get an unsigned copy sooner.

More news soon! We’re almost at the finish line. We’ve crossed the 4,000 pre-orders threshold. Tell you what, if we break 5,000 by July 24, I’ll add something extra for all of you early backers.

More soon!

-Tal 

I am still reeling with emotions after the crazy finish of the Nerdist Sci-Fi Contest. It is gradually sinking in that Mission 51 will be a published book and I will be a published author! It feels surreal. I am grateful beyond words for all of you. Inkshares publishes books only with the pre-order "approval" of the crowd. Mission 51’s publication could only happen on Inkshares with the support of wonderful people like you! Thank you very, very much!

I am truly not quite back to myself yet. I feel off-balance in a good, exciting way. I know this is a transitional feeling. For the past year and a half, I have been focused on writing and preparing myself for exactly this sort of contest. Now I will shift my focus to the goal of editing and publication. It feels like a brand new day full of hope and promise!

Inkshares has sent me a detailed questionnaire to help them help me through the process of editing, cover design, and marketing. I am to hand it in with my manuscript. I informed them I want to review it one last time and tidy up some loose ends before they start their process. I will let you all know when I have delivered the manuscript to Inkshares. It won’t be long.

Meanwhile, Mission 51 is now considered an Inkshares "property." I have a page on their "Properties" section, which is available to third parties in the entertainment industry who may be interested in the story. That’s pretty exciting, too! I haven’t completely tweaked that page, but if you are interested in what I have so far, you can check it out here.

Once I turn in the manuscript, I will join a few other works that have merited publication on Inkshares and are waiting for them to focus their professional resources on editing, layout, cover design, marketing, production, and distribution. It’s a thorough process that will take some time, quite possibly a year. I hope to have a better handle on the timeline once I hand in the manuscript. I will always inform you as soon as I know anything relating to the production of Mission 51.

Again, thank you for this incredible opportunity. I literally could not have done it without you!

Peace!

~Ferd  👽

Though it also means I can have a little bit of a break for a week or 2 while I wait, which will be nice. I need a break. - Me...5 months ago

Turns out my brain decided it needed quite the break.

The only real way to describe the last 5 months is that I haven’t really been...present. I’ve sort of just floated through 2017 so far and I can neither adequately explain the why or the how. None of it directly relates to the publishing of the book (other than delaying its submission) so I won’t go too much further into it. Suffice it to say, the ol’ brain box is a bit less floaty at the moment, so stuff is happening.

What stuff you may ask? Well, in the tradition of my people, here is a bullet point list of where things are at with the book: 

• The beta reading went well. I received rather positive feedback from everyone on the story and the characters. Also, everyone seemed to like the ending, which was a huge relief. 
• The book is more or less done at this point, I just need to go through and do a final pass over it to tidy up a few last things. 
• I still need to wrangle all the paperwork and extra stuff to go along with the manuscript when I submit it to Inkshares. 
• I also have a new (and likely final) cover. I’m quite fond of it. It even has a nice little spot for a cover quote, should I be lucky enough to get one.

So yeah, if I can keep everything in gear and on track, Ghosts will be submitted by the end of the month. After that, I’m assuming that there’ll be a bit of a wait since I’ll now be further down the queue than if I’d submitted earlier in the year, but it is what it is. 

I shall keep you all posted in the meantime.